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The Drug of Scandal

Samantha Korb
February 10, 2009
019:169:001
Reading Reaction 5: Graber Ch. 9
The Drug of Scandal
Graber explores the differences between the goals of the media and the goals of government officials in his ninth chapter. News workers want to cover stories that appeal to the public, while the government wants stories that “mirror their sense of what is important and unimportant” to be covered in the media (Graber, p. 281). After all, media audiences are often more attracted to human interest stories and out of the ordinary events than to government policies. Newspeople make it a point to play the watchdog role because their job is to serve the public and keep an eye on the government because the public doesn’t have the means to do so on their own. Investigative reporting has made the watchdog role possible for the media; without this form of reporting, secrets and scandals of the government may have never been brought to light. The government’s awareness of investigative reporting has, in some cases, halted the government from further participating in scandals. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.
Watchdog journalism has also lead government officials to “blame the media for the declining prestige of congress” (Graber, p. 278). They claim that the media focus on “trivia, scandals, internal dissent, and official misconduct, but often ignore congressional consensus and the passage of significant legislation” (Graber, p. 278). If the government didn’t participate in secrets and scandal then the media wouldn’t have to spend so much time focusing on those things. Of course government officials are mad that the media doesn’t cover the “good things” about the government; they’re just getting defensive. In this case, scandal is just like drugs; you’d think because drugs are illegal people wouldn’t do them, but that doesn’t stop anyone- it just forces drug users to become more secretive… all the more reason for the media to dig deeper.